“Troubled Iran: Causes, Contexts and Consequences”

Overview

The Iranian regime has basically come to power by running popular protests. Therefore, it enjoys an accumulative expertise in the mechanisms to manage, deal with and, if necessary, suppress angry masses. Still, it seems inevitable that the ruling coalition of Khamenei-Revolutionary Guards in Tehran must face the tough reality that the regime’s legitimacy is eroding. There are also internal structural crises that the regime must face. Suppression can postpone the crisis for a while, but in parallel, it will deepen it. While experts agree that the current protests in Iran are different in form and substance from those of 2001 and 2009, they differ on their assessments of the potential outcomes and trajectories of these protests. This is what this workshop seeks to approach.